Benidorm - Holidays in Spain

by laurence on Thursday, June 25, 2015

Benidorm is famed as one of the most popular Spanish tourist resorts on the Mediterranean. Situated in the province of Alicante, Benidorm is a coastal town packed full of hotels, restaurants and apartment buildings, which together endow the seaside resort with a particularly memorable skyline.

Benidorm is naturally a popular beach side destination for tourists on vacation, promising to entertain young and old alike; despite a previous reputation as a party town, the city also has beautiful landscapes, water parks, and an array of cultural and leisure attractions.

Benidorm has undergone quite a large transformation since its days as a small village, with its main source of income now tourism rather than fishing.

Benidorm is a favorite holiday destination with visitors from all over the world, but the resort draws in a particularly substantial crowd from Ireland, the UK, Belgium and Germany. Offering up a vibrant and balanced mixture between beaches, night spots and quaint bars and restaurants, 60% of visitors to the Costa Blanca/Valencia region choose Benidorm. Since the increase in popularity of the “package holiday”, Benidorm has seen much of its economy focus on the tourist trade. The large concentration of clubs and bars in Benidorm make it the perfect package holiday selection; the array of cabaret acts and entertainment that kicks off in the evening continue until the early hours, making the resort unique compared to other sleepier Spanish coastal towns. Tourists can also make the most of the beautiful landscapes; Benidorm’s three main beaches are Mal Pas, Poniente and Levante.

Although once perhaps tarnished with the reputation of being a prime summer holiday destination for binge drinking, loud and disrespectful tourists, other resorts such as Malia and Ibiza are now more well known for drawing in the younger crowds, and Benidorm is considered less rowdy, though certainly still sufficiently lively. Equally, the town caters for families with young children; its three theme parks, two located in the city’s outskirts (Mundomar and Aqualandia), and the other at the base of the mountain further inland (Terra Mitica) all make for popular holiday day trips.

Although settlements in the town’s region can be traced back almost as far as 3000BC, the population of the area only really began to flourish with the arrival of the Moors. However in 1245, the region was regained by King James I of Aragon, and Benidorm was given a town charter to facilitate Christians moving into the area to replace the Moors in 1325. A turning point for the town came with the implementation of a complex system in 1666 which sent water into the region. Quickly, fishermen in Benidorm became hot property, and the industry flourished, which improved agriculture in the area and built up the economy substantially. Benidorm became a well known center for sea captains; the region became busier and wealthier very rapidly. The decline of the fishing industry in the 1950s was not all bad news for the town; in approving development plans for the tourist market, the council put the foundations in place for what was to become one of the biggest tourist hot spots across Spain, drawing in on average 5 million arrivals each year.